Experiencing Cities Essay

The text Experiencing Cities by Mark Hutter deals with small sociology and exemplary moveion hypothesis. This means the way people experience the urban world in relationship to their e rattlingday lives. This would include the inter proceeding with differents that would create meaning for them from the forcible and human environment of the city. The exercise was to pick up certain formulas of micro sociology and use my life experiences as typesetters cases to show my understanding of this theory. The text uses perspectives from other social science disciplines in studying the city.Some of these included urban history, art, architectural history, urban geography and environmental psychology. Global urbanization is discussed in the last chapter, which to me helped me to understand where I am in the context of the world. I am a twenty-one year old, female student. I ensue college full- epoch, work full-time and live with my p arnts in invigorated York city. I am single and h ave no children and hope to obtain my degree in Social Sciences. First I would like to discuss symbolic fundamental interactionism and the ego in party.Functionalism, conflict theory and evolutionism tend to be macrotheories that direct the sociologist toward large phenomena, their relationships and transfers in them. To use an example from my life would be the terrorist acts that happen on 911. This is a macrosocial phenomenon only when at the micro level it affected me and my family, the family members of the victims and New York City. On the Macro level it affected the United States, and on a wider picture it also affected the globe. Symbolic interactionism, like exchange theory, is a micro orientation.It is a theoretical map that directs the sociologist in quests to understand how individuals interact in face to face relationships, relationships that atomic number 18 the launchation of social life. hostile exchange theory, symbolic interactionism does non stress concept s of rewards and costs. Instead it is an emphasis on the human ego, symbolic communications and interaction betwixt persons based upon symbolic communication. The ego is the process that is made up of the interaction of two self-aspects. These are I and Me. This is the knowing of self, the self asking and revising questions in the depict or the I.Then there is the self-aspect composed of departed experiences and conscious identity, the Me. The I is the self-aspect that exists in the present, which notes the world around it, that questions, that is impulsive, and that suggests my behavior. The me is based on past experience and is judgmental of my impulses. The I is my creative self the me is my social self. For example I am basically a night person I am working on this exercise at midnight. Being a night person I believe that the best way to be sure to have a good morning is to respite finished most of it.Because of this I have always tried to have my break upes schedule fo r afternoon or evenings, when possible. But last quarter I found to my horror, that due to a series of circumstances, I was forced to take a course that met on Mondays at 8 a. m. This is a time of day I have rarely seen and when I have seen it, it was not because I was up really early, but because I was up very late. When the misgiving clock rang at 615, the immediate impulsive action of my self arising in my I was to pull the plug on the alarm and go back to sleep.I would have done so, had not the me aspect of my self reminded me that would be a bad idea. As the socially aware, judgmental self-aspect, it reinforced me of the need to get up, shower, and eat so I could butt on my responsibilities as a student and my goals. But I was still very tired and my I suggested that I sleep another half hour. My judgmental me aspect suggested twenty minutes more was the maximum time I could sleep if I was to meet my responsibilities. I proceeded to go back to sleep for twenty minutes and at 800 a. m. I went to my economics class ready to absorb the knowledge.Society is created by interactions between persons initial with their selves that entrust them to plan and coordinate their throw behaviors. But social interaction first requires more than selves and it depends on symbolic communication through language. A literal symbol is a sound which indicates some object. The spoken word verify for example chair means something to sit on. People who are innate(p) in the same society learn more or slight the same symbols. For example, I went to Ohio once to visit a friend I asked for a soda and was told that she didnt have soda but she had Pepsi. Thats what I wanted, but in Ohio they ask for a pop.People innate(p) in the same society that pick up the same symbols helps conversations between persons in which joint plans are made and communicated. So the existence of the self and symbolic communication makes group interaction possible. Because I have self and can communica te symbolically I can form groups such(prenominal) as my family, my college and my religion. These are the foundation of social life. People will venture of the world in terms of symbols that represent objects and these objects can be physiological like chairs and books, social like teachers or sisters, and abstract such as truth, liberty, or evil.To understand cities and the development of cities I thought of looking at urbanization first. Urbanization refers to masses of people despicable to cities and to these cities having a developing influence on society. Urbanization is worldwide. To understand the citys drawing card the first thing to consider is the pull of urban life. New York City offers an incredible variety of social events such as music ranging from shake to classic, architectural history, and cultural diversity. It also offers anonymity, which I find so more than better than the scrutiny and restriction my friend had in her small town in Ohio.But probably the most important factor would be the opportunities in hypothesizes. There are three types that life in cities by resource the cosmopolites, which I fall into, are students, intellectuals, professionals, artists, and entertainers. We are pulled to the city because of the amenities and cultural beliefs. The single, another group I can associate with, are young unmarried people that are staying in the city because of the job and entertainment. Staying in the city reflects a stage in my life course, because after I marry and have children I have thought of moving to the suburbs.Then there are the ethnic villagers that are united by race-ethnicity and social class. These people live in tightly knit neighborhoods that tally villages and small towns around New York City. Moving within a resolve circle of family and friends trying to isolate them from what they view as the harmful personal effects of city life. There are two groups that have little choice near where they live they are th e deprived and the trapped. Symbolic interactionism focuses on society as an outcome of persons with self-identities interacting with one another.An example of how symbolic interactionism can be applied to me by how I view myself as say a drinker I have been taught about drinking through interaction with my friends. The learning requires interaction in a number of steps. This process is a great deal accompanied by learning to explain away some sharp-worded sensations caused by drinking in excess. Once drinking begins individuals will change their self-concept and thoughts of themselves as an occasional or to regular use of alcohol.So major(ip) changes made by alcohol were not caused by the alcohol but by learned changes in self identity. So in rundown to other theories critical theory, phenomenology and ehtnomehtodology are also important to experiencing cities. Critical theory focuses on alienation and social contradictions and how they are overcome. Phenomenology focuses on how claims to knowledge about society are constructed. Ethnomethodology looks at how social actors make sense of their own actions and all of these are used to understand society.